AT : A Preposition of Place and Time

Prepositions have always been a headache to all learners of English. I’ve been searching – for a looong time -to find memory tricks to help students remember them. So, I started drawing pictures such as the one below:

In one picture, we can see all uses of the preposition “at”. We can present the picture to the learner either as a story or as a simple flashcard.

The card is divided in two parts:

The one on the left, where things are happening during the day.

and the one on the right, where things are happening during the night.

In the middle, there is a big clock, the masterpiece of this picture. It looks like Big Ben but the thing is that I wanted to make sure that the preposition “at” is mainly used with time: My train leaves at 10:00 p.m. But I chose the clock to strike 12:00 because I can use it later on to ask:

-What’s the time? -It’s 12 o’clock, right! Either at midday or at midnight.

It’s up to you how to use the picture. But it would really help to print and hand it out with the following notes.

PLACE

at 117 Baker Street

at home

at work

at school, university, college

at the bus stop, at the taxi stand

at the bookshop, at the cinema, at the restaurant

at the door, at the entrance, at the table,at the desk

at the front/back of

at the beginning/end of (the street)

TIME

at 12 o’ clock, at 3 o’ clock…

at the moment

at present

at bedtime

at lunchtime

at the same time

at a young age

at noon

at midday

at midnight

at night

at the beginning/end of the day, at the end of January

Did you notice the little girl entering the school? PAPADELI Language School? Did you see the red hat she is wearing? When do we wear hats like that?

at Christmas

The little girl is at school. What is she thinking about? Maybe she needs to relax. But when can she do that?

at the weekend (BrE) – *Note that in American English, on the weekend is the correct form.

What about the lady at the end of the street? At her age, she shouldn’t be out at midnight. But what is she trying to do? What is this little thing with the long ears next to the egg? Oh, a rabbit. Rabbit? Eggs? What time of the year could that be? When do we decorate our home with rabbits and eggs?

at Easter

I”ve also used as a background at the back, the silhouettes of the buildings of a city, whereas at the front, the big clock.

You can also present “at” in 2 sections:

1. At as a preposition of time:

2. At as a preposition of place:

There is always the simple way to present each use on its own:

In case you present the card above, don’t forget to mention that there are 2 words, so we have 2 mountains. In this way, we prevent learners from adding a 3rd word in between.

How to make Ss reproduce the AT phrases

You can print the following pages and cut out the shapes.

S1 gives instructions to S2: There are many buildings at the back. There is also a big clock at the front…

S2 follows the instructions and builds up the whole picture.

You could also create a 3D CARD, which is much more impressive! You can find a tutorial here.

And here’s a 3D card:

To practise writing, you can ask students to write down either the “at phrases” or the whole description of the picture. In case you choose the first option, use a stopwatch to make the activity more challenging! The winner is the one who writes the most phrases!